Annihilation Of All Armenians Threatened -sm19151002

ANNIHILATION OF ALL ARMENIANS THREATENED

OCTOBER 2, 1915

That the massacres of Sultan Abdul Hamid in 1895, in which 300,000 Armenians were put to death, seem insignificant in comparison with the butchery now going on in Turkey, was the statement published in this country last week. It was made by Nubar Pasha, the diplomatic representative in Paris of the Katholikos, or head of the Armenians church, who sent letters supporting his declaration to M. Simbad Gabriel, president of the Armenian General Progressive Association in the United States. Dr. Gabriel estimated from these letters that the number of Armenians put to death 600,000 more have been driven from their homes to wander among the villages of Asia Minor. All these are from a population of but 1,500,000.

"Christian martyrdom has at no time assumed such colossal proportions," wrote Nubar Pasha in transmitting the correspondence. "What has happened is nothing more nor less than the annihilation of a whole people."

The authors of the letters begged that their names be kept secret lest vengeance be visited upon them. One letter from Constantinople says that Armenians in all the cities and villages of Cilicia have been exiled to the desert regions such of the Aleppo. They have not been allowed to carry any of their possessions with them, the letter goes on, and Moslems are occupying the lands and houses left vacant. The young men are kept for military service, and it is only the weak and aged who are deported.

"The court-martials are functioning everywhere," says another letter. "Numerous Armenians have been hanged, and many others sentences to ten or fifteen years in prison. Many have been beaten to death, among them the priests of the village of Kurk. Churches and convents have been pillaged and destroyed, and almost all the bishops have been arrested to be delivered up to court-martial."

Greed, religion and politics combine to induce the Turks to massacre the Armenians, Dr. Gabriel said in making public the contents of the letters. He told of having talked recently with an Armenian woman who had just come from Constantinople. One morning twenty of her friends, she said, were taken out by the Turks and killed in cold blood for no other reason than that they were suspected of being unfriendly to the Turkish cause.

"When the bugle blows in the morning," said Dr. Gabriel, "the Turks rush fiercely to the work of killing the Christians and plundering them of their wealth. When it stops in the evening, or in two or three days, the shooting and stabbing stop just as suddenly then as it began. The people obey their orders like soldiers."

The American Red Cross is receiving many inquiries concerning conditions in Armenia and is daily requested to contribute toward the relief of the Armenians people. The country appears at present to be virtually inaccessible. Members of the Rockefeller foundation War Relief Commission who have recently returned from Constantinople report that it was impossible for any foreigners to obtain permission to go through the interior of Asia Minor or into Armenia. Even American missionaries who had come to Constantinople in the early summer had not been allowed to return to their stations and were in great uncertainly about the condition of the civil populations among whom they had lived.

On Monday the Red Cross announced that it was wholly in sympathy with those who are desirous of extending practical help to the Armenians and that it is now trying to obtain reliable information as to the most effective means of carrying relief to that country. Political conditions in Europe of course inject delicate diplomatic elements into the problem. A definite announcement may be possible within a few days, said the Red Cross.